


Flesh and Blood

by Sholio



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Gen, Time Travel, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 03:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21047867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: Nebula said that she came from the future, but she wouldn't say what part of it; she was very cagy about that. She also would not admit exactlywhatshe was, though Peggy had read just enough of the ridiculous pulps Michael had been addicted to that she had a few suspicions.





	Flesh and Blood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [schneefink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/schneefink/gifts).

> Another Whumptober ficlet, this time for a request for Peggy and Nebula for the prompt "Scars."

Nebula said that she came from the future, but she wouldn't say what part of it; she was very cagy about that. She also would not admit exactly _what_ she was, though Peggy had read just enough of the ridiculous pulps Michael had been addicted to that she had a few suspicions. Also, she had fought against Hydra weapons and what Daniel insisted on calling black space goo. A woman who was probably some form of highly advanced robot, a Martian, or something of that nature, was not even the strangest thing she had ever seen in her life.

In any case, a blue woman walking out of the desert was definitely a problem for the SSR, so Peggy and Daniel kept her hidden in their house while she tinkered with an increasingly complicated device that she was building in the guest bedroom, emerging only to scowl at them and give Peggy a shopping list of ever harder to find ingredients.

"You know, if we ever met time-traveling aliens, I would have thought they'd be a little politer," Daniel said over dinner. Nebula had taken her plate off to her room and closed the door as usual.

"In the pulps they come with ray guns and steal our women, so I suppose this is a significant improvement," Peggy said. "Anyway, she's stranded in a place that must be very strange and alien for her, where she can't even go out in public without raising an outcry. I expect neither of us would do better."

"Oh, don't sell yourself short, Peg. You'd probably crash-land on Mars and end up running the place within a year."

"Are there people on Mars, do you suppose?"

"Grouchy blue people, most likely," Daniel said.

*

Peggy tried to give their peculiar guest privacy, but it was by complete accident that she walked out of the back door and found Nebula sitting on the concrete stoop leading to their little-used back yard, doing something complicated to her arm that involved fizzling lights and bits of glinting metal spread out beside her.

"Oh," Peggy said. "I'm very sorry. Excuse me."

"I needed better light," Nebula growled. "Lighting conditions on your planet in this time are appalling. Guess I should be lucky it's not candlelight."

Peggy turned to go back inside, but she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Nebula was hastily attempting to gather things up with her one working hand; the other seemed to be out of commission and partly disassembled. "You needn't go inside. You're welcome to stay out here. I wouldn't have bothered you if I'd known."

Nebula hesitated and then laid down a fistful of mechanical parts. "Don't want to chase you out of your own house-yard," she muttered. "Just ... do whatever you were going to do. I'll be done in a minute."

Peggy had in fact come out to look for a pair of shears in the shed, because the front rosebush was scraping against the wall and she needed to trim it back. She tried hard not to look over her shoulder at whatever Nebula was doing but ... well ... it was very difficult not to be curious.

She did eventually find the shears.

As she went back to the house, Nebula stretched out her arm and flexed her fingers. "You're lucky," she said abruptly. "Not to have to deal with this."

Peggy smiled. "Well, we flesh-and-blood beings have our own inconveniences to deal with."

She'd only meant to be polite, but Nebula made a snarling sound, got up, and marched into the house.

*

It was the next day and Peggy was measuring out coffee when Nebula said from the doorway, "I wasn't always like this."

Peggy did _not_ jump. "Oh?" she said calmly, setting the percolator on the flame.

"I used to be like you. Flesh and blood, as you put it."

Peggy looked around. Nebula was leaning in the doorway, wearing a pair of baggy trousers that were certainly Daniel's, along with one of the blazers Peggy had given her. The two items most assuredly did not match. Peggy had been reminding herself on a regular basis that a Martian could not be expected to understand how human clothing worked, and advice was probably not wanted. At least Nebula had been convinced not to walk around in the underwear she had been wearing under the torn-up suit of leather or some future fabric that she'd had on when she walked out of the desert.

"What happened to you?" Peggy asked quietly. "To make you ... no longer as you were. An accident?"

Nebula snorted a short laugh. "No. No accident. It was done to me on purpose, by my _father."_ There was no way to miss the loathing in that word. "He thought it would make me stronger."

It was hard to think what to say to that. "That sounds very cruel," Peggy said.

"Cruelty was the point," Nebula said. After a moment, she added, "I ... don't think I realized that at the time."

Peggy poured the coffee, a cup for Daniel (who she could now hear banging around in the bedroom) and a cup for Nebula, who liked it with milk and a lot of sugar. She set Daniel's mug beside her own cup of tea on the table and turned to give Nebula hers, which she would undoubtedly take off to her room as usual.

Instead, Nebula set it firmly at the third place at the table, and sat down, curling her hands around it. She didn't say anything else, or offer to help Peggy with breakfast, but this time she stayed to eat with them.


End file.
